By: Diane Benjamin
Where did the Vote Yes committee get your cell phone number? From Unit 5? I know people receiving texts who believe they couldn’t have come from anyone else. That’s illegal Unit 5, luckily Illinois doesn’t have prosecutors who care.
This was texted Thursday night, h/t a reader:

At best this graph is deceptive. Taxes will not go down because the assessed value of your house in 2026 will not be the same as it is now. Implying that voting for a tax increase will make your taxes go down is vile.
Unit 5 tax rate history:
2021 5.614470
2020 5.647040
2019 5.355410
2018 5.391970
2017 5.036100
2016 5.014690
2015 5.058270
2014 5.027070
2013 5.007040
2012 4.884120
Between 2012 and 2021 the rate went up almost 15%. Assessed values increased too meaning Unit 5 has been collecting even more property taxes since 2012.
What Unit 5 hasn’t done is control costs. The number of students has gone up and down, salaries and personnel have only gone up. Unit 5 is proof public sector unions should be illegal. Nobody is representing taxpayers during negotiations. School Board elections are next April.
Citizens need to vote instead of skipping local elections. This is the fault of everyone who didn’t.
Vote No
Educating needs to come before Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It isn’t.
Digital and marketing deceit all In The name of money and winning and deceiving taxpayers. Surrounds Central Illinois unfortunately. What the so called communication and tech world is all about now $$$. A left wing cult recruiting members and tax dollars. At the expense and by exploiting students and kids.
Easy as pie.
Excellent information Diane. Weikle would never let the truth get in the way
Yes and No. yes they are electioneering (while strictly enforcing teachers do not if advocating for NO). And please vote NO!!!! Administration is severely bloated. Superintendent, vice superintendent, then a head of HS, JH and elementary Schools (one for each three total). All before you get to the principal and cadre of assistant principals. Then you finally get to teachers that engage with kids. Not to mention all the DEI BS. Please vote no. I have two kids in unit 5 and I can tell you they do not need more money. Just more common sense.
Of course they are electioneering. The problem is there are no consequences for government breaking the law.
One, I’m voting no. That’s just common sense.
Two, how is them having my number any different than Bailey, Pritzker, Peterson, Brady, Chung, Sorenson, ILGOP, etc? It should ALL be illegal.
Who gave it to them? They aren’t elected or part of a party
Who gave the other ones my number? Just because they’re a political party doesn’t give them any right, in my mind. Who knows, it’s all effing crooked.
If you regroup vote with a phone number they got it.
Shouldn’t be allowed….by anyone. 😡
Candidates are entitled to voter lists, Vote Yes isn’t
Still, shouldn’t be allowed.
I wonder if the Unit 5 group somehow managed to find some legal loophole to be categorized as a political organization that could gain access to phone lists?
How are candidates suppose to reach voters?
Unit 5 didn’t but nobody in Illinois is prosecuted unless the Feds do it
Snail mail.
They get those from the same voter lists
Vote Devore for any hope of change
The phones should be off limits.
Tell your election office to remove it. Unit 5 got them from parents
So, they used their parent phone list for it? That seems shady, a lot like using my work email for political purposes. My state ethics test told me I couldn’t do that. 🙂
Of course they can’t, nobody will prosecute
I’m not a parent and they texted me to vote yes. So I’m not sure how they got my phone number.
Interesting, that would explain why, as a Unit 5 resident, but my kids go some where else, I haven’t gotten anything. Nothing, zilch. Maybe they’ll anger a savvy lawyer with kids in Unit 5…
Won’t happen
Wouldn’t the head of the Unit 5 Yes group (RC McBride) have lists from his times running for office? The question would be if he can use them for other purposes.
Cory Beirne is running for County board. Perhaps he is providing the voter information.